


You Are The Coldest Of Goldfish, Norene, And You Always Have Been

by madamerenard



Category: My Life as a Teenage Robot
Genre: Autistic-Coded Character, Family Feels, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, nontraditional family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 10:48:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30087939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamerenard/pseuds/madamerenard
Summary: Nora has a breakdown over a late night cup of tea.(Set after the events of "Never Say Uncle".)
Relationships: Nora Wakeman & Jenny Wakeman, Nora Wakeman & Wisteria Wakeman
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	You Are The Coldest Of Goldfish, Norene, And You Always Have Been

**Author's Note:**

> i have a lot of feelings about nora wakeman, okay?

Nora descended down the staircase of her home, the walls dimly lit and night having fallen outside. XJ9 had been tucked sweetly in bed, hopefully dreaming of electric sheep. Although Nora _had_ modified the dream chip to be more accurate to the real world, after XJ9’s little short-circuit mishap.

The scientist looked out her window to her lawn guests. Wisteria and Glenn were likely fast asleep as well. 

Stubby fingers tapped the banister. She could go down to her lab and tinker, like usual...but she was rather tired from the day’s events, and no doubt Wisteria would leave early in the morning. A cup of tea would help the engineer relax enough for sleep.

She trotted to the kitchen, only to freeze at a shadow in front of her.

“ _Wisteria?_ ” Nora whispered fiercely, not wanting to wake the children up with a surprised shriek. “What are you doing here? Thought you hated my house.” The last sentence was spat with no small amount of bitterness. Nora still remembered Wisteria’s cruel jabs about her life choices.

“Now that I’m inside, it’s not actually quite so bad,” her sister admitted with a sheepish smile. “The décor is lovely.”

“All of the _fun_ things are in my lab,” Nora chuckled. “I don’t spend a lot of time above ground.”

“ _Eugh!_ I **won’t** be going down there, thank you!” Wisteria shuddered.

Nora simply shrugged, striding past her sister to get to the teapot. “Care for a cup of tea? Don’t worry, the teapot isn’t mechanical.” She paused, adding: “Yet.”

“I’d love some,” Wisteria said weakly, clearly hoping that the teapot wouldn’t come to life and try to drown her. 

Nora busied herself with preparing the tea, taking extra care in her measurements in order to keep her mind focused on mathematics. Wisteria, conversely, took a seat at the table thoughtfully.

After the cups were filled equally and distributed, Nora sat down across from her sister. “So...you never answered my question.”

“That robot daughter you have: is her name XJ9 or Jenny?” Wistera blurted out, catching Nora off-guard.

After a blink: “Well, XJ9 is her series and model number. It’s the name she was given, but Jenny is the name she’s, uh, chosen for herself.”

“Why not just call her Jenny all the time, then?” Wistera asked, eyes pained for reasons Nora couldn’t fathom.

Nora winced, remembering the fights she had with the robot herself about this. “Because XJ9 is the name _I_ gave her.”

“But you yourself go by a nickname. You want your friends to call you Nora, instead of Norene. Why is it different?”

“I _do_ call her Jenny,” Nora protested weakly, feeling like she was cornered. Despite other arguments with her sister, she didn’t feel like fighting this one. Her daughter was always a touchy subject. “When she gets hurt, I…”

Then the scientist shook her head. “Oh, why do _you_ care all of a sudden? I thought you didn’t like her! You deemed her a 'total downer', if I recall correctly!”

It was Wisteria’s turn to blush in shame as she sipped her tea. “Well...well, Glenn likes her. And she _is_ quite creative. I do wish we had a better first impression.”

“She just got excited,” Nora explained, fondness softening her voice. “She did what was only natural for her. You should see when she hugs me - ha, I’ve started to carry a crowbar around!”

Wisteria peered at her, studying her with an intensity Nora had never seen her sister show anything. “You...you really love her,” she gasped quietly, as if solving the last piece of a puzzle.

Nora sipped her own tea nervously. “What, is it so surprising?”

“Yes!” Wisteria emphasized. “Honestly, Nora, you’re not the most in-touch with your emotions. Even when you are, the emotion is usually anger or selfish pride. So seeing you so openly care and love another being…” 

Wisteria was beginning to get misty-eyed. 

Nora, on the other hand, was beginning to get agitated.

“I _do_ have emotions, you know! And Jenny isn’t the only person I love!” Nora argued firmly. She glanced at Wisteria, hurt filling her eyes. “But you could never see that, because you could _neverrrr_ understand that my love looked differrrent than yourrrs! Or Motherrrr’s, or Fatherrrr’s, or _anyone’s!_ ”

More trilling on her r’s indicated Nora’s spiraling state of mind. She slammed her hands on the table, rattling the teacups. The wooden chair wobbled as she stood on it in her heels, feeling the need to loom over her much-taller sister. 

“I studied rrrrobotics because rrrobots could understand me, and _I_ could understand _them!_ But now I have a teenage AI that’s so _rrrridiculously_ analogous to a human’s that I **don’t** understand her, and she doesn’t understand _ **me,**_ and I have no idea if she knows how much I love herrr or what I would do to protect herrr or what I would _sacrifice for herrr happiness—!_ ” 

A choked wail cut the rant short. Nora collapsed, face planting into the table with her arms shielding her. A hand burrowed into her white locks and gripped them. Her shoulders shook with quiet sobs as the weight of her realization fell on her.

And then a hand wrapped in hers.

It was flesh, not metal. And it smelled like - ugh, sandalwood. “Nora,” Wisteria murmured, running her thumb over the back of her sister’s hand. “She knows.”

“How do _you_ know?” Nora croaked back bitterly, balling her fist in her hair. How could Wisteria know? They hadn’t talked since before XJ9 was even built. She didn’t know all the times Jenny brushed her off, or hung up on her, or screamed at her to go away. How could _she_ know Nora’s pain?

“I’ve seen enough of her to know she’s sharp as a tack. I think she gets that from her mother. Gets her stubbornness from her, too,” her sister teased gently. “She may not admit it, Nora, but deep down she understands. And you two are so close already - my goodness, she couldn’t stop talking about you. I'm certain, without a shadow of a doubt, that nothing will tear you two apart.”

Nora sniffled. “She truly _did_ inherit all my worst qualities, didn’t she?”

“Oh, it’s not all bad. Remember how she wrangled my rampaging horse? She was _fearless!_ Reminded me of a certain hotblooded Skyway recruit, back in the day.”

At this, Nora lifted her head. Her eyes were puffy and red, and her cheeks stained with tears. Was it the goggles or the tears making her eyes glassy and vulnerable? “Thought you wanted nothing to do with me after that. I wasn’t anything more than a war criminal in your eyes.”

“I still don’t agree,” Wisteria sighed, trying to avoid an argument. “But that’s in the past, Norene.”

It surprised her to see Nora so openly torn up about the memory. At the time, she had assumed her sister merely brushed her off as she was wont to do with anyone who disagreed with her, and went about her own life. Had she been carrying that weight all this time? 

Norene was right; Wisteria _didn’t_ understand her. The scientist seemed harsh and prideful at first glance, but it only took one look at her interactions with her robotic child to see that she truly did care for others. But Wisteria hadn’t bothered looking; no one had. And Norene, having been abandoned by the humans in her life, retreated into herself and her science even more. 

This ultimately culminated in a humanlike robot, succeeding both in bringing Norene true happiness and terrifying her into believing she would eventually chase it away.

“Sister dear, I think we’ve both gone a bit crazy with loneliness…”

“You? _Lonely?”_ Nora scoffed, choosing not to comment on her own lack of company. “ _Rrrridiculous_ , you had plenty of boys hanging off your every word!”

“None of them stayed long,” Wisteria admitted quietly. “They were either unfaithful or they wanted me to settle down in some suburbia somewhere. I traveled mostly on my own until I found Glenn five years ago. He was only a baby, abandoned in a swamp they were going to bulldoze into a shopping mall. One day he called me 'Ma' and...that was it.” Wisteria smiled fondly at the memory. 

Nora closed her eyes, knowing exactly how Wisteria felt. She would never forget the first time XJ9 called her Mom. Mogg and Smytus and the entire Skyway militia could mock and laugh all they wanted. Nora wasn’t just XJ9’s engineer; she was Jenny’s mother, and they could **never** take that away from her.

“Nora, please...you don’t have to do this alone anymore. I’m always just a call away.”

Nora raised her head, white hair sticking out wildly between her fingers and the strap of her lab goggles. After a moment of studying Wisteria, worry eased off her features and was replaced by a watery but relieved smile. 

“Thank you, Wisteria.”

* * *

Nora and Jenny saw their guests off the next morning. It was strange to say goodbye with warmth and not venom, but Nora couldn’t deny she enjoyed the rare light feeling in her heart. Wisteria shot her a look that clearly meant “don’t forget to call when you need me”, and Nora simply smirked coyly in response (“make me”).

After she shut the front door, Nora mentally reviewed the schedule for the day. XJ9 would soon leave for school (she liked to walk with her friends nowadays instead of getting a ride from her embarrassing mother), meaning Nora would likely tinker in her lab until an alarm sounded. She headed towards the basement door, waving her daughter off. “Well, XJ9, have a good day at sch _—_ ”

Suddenly, mechanical arms closed around her waist. Nora startled as she was pulled back into Jenny’s chest, trapped but not squeezed. She could freely wiggle, which she did to no avail. Jenny had a firm grip.

“XJ9?”

“We’re having a five minute hug. Right now.”

It was a rather one-sided hug. Nora’s arms were trapped at her sides, and she was facing the wall instead of the robot herself. Still, it was rather pleasant. Jenny was holding her tight to her central core, the warmest part of her body. She could feel Jenny’s head dip and gently nuzzle her mess of white hair.

After an awkward pause, Nora spoke just to break the silence. “You’re not worried about your friends seeing you hug your mother…?”

The only response to that was to hold Nora tighter.


End file.
